It was Lucas' idea, of course. He'd snuck a look at Henry's personnel file, figured out when his birthday was, and begged me to help him play a birthday joke on his boss. He had even roped Hanson into it. I could hardly bear the puppy dog eyes they were giving me, and it would be funny, anyway. I gave permission and promised to delay Henry for awhile on his birthday while they got things set up.

The coffee shop I suggested was quicker than normal, but it wasn't exactly difficult to delay Henry these days. One raised eyebrow was all it took.

Half an hour later, as I was helping Henry wipe lipstick from his neck, he whispered, "What's going on, darling?"

"What do you mean, what's going on?" I could tell he knew something was up, but I wasn't going to ruin his assistant's fun.

"You're late for work." He stroked my hair, drawing me in for another kiss. When he released me, he added, "So am I."

I grinned cheekily at him. "Maybe we'll both get fired, and then we can continue this at my place."

"Very funny." He pulled back to glare at me, but I just smirked at him.

"If you're so worried, I'll drop you off at the morgue."

I insisted on walking him in. It was worth it to see the incredulous look on Henry's face when he saw how many balloons were in his office. "What–" he started to say.

Lucas burst from the freezer room. "Surprise!" he exclaimed, spreading his arms wide. He was even wearing one of those cheesy birthday hats. "Happy birthday!" Hanson followed him, trying to look like he was just tolerating the younger man's enthusiasm, but he was clearly enjoying this quite as much as Lucas was.

"How did you–"

"I stole your personnel file," Lucas admitted shamelessly. "I didn't know you went to Oxford! Anyway, we decided you probably hadn't had a birthday party in a really long time–"

"I didn't tell them how long," I murmured in Henry's ear from behind. He turned to scowl at me as Lucas continued,

"So here you go! Surprise!"

Henry looked from me, to Lucas, to Hanson, to the many red, yellow, blue, and green balloons in his office, and back to me. The half-annoyed, half-amused gleam in his eyes informed me that I would pay for this later. "Thank you, I think," he told Lucas.

"There are presents for you in there, but you get to dig for them," his assistant said, as though Henry should be delighted. "That's part of the fun!"

"I can hardly wait." Henry strode across the room and opened the door, letting the balloons flood out into the morgue. "Lucas–"

"Finding a needle immediately." Lucas began to dig through a drawer as Henry shook his head and Hanson laughed.

"There's something from me and the wife in there." Hanson gestured through the open door. "Let the kid have his fun, all right, Doc?"

Henry leaned towards him and said quietly, "Only if I can have mine." Louder he called, "Lucas! Where is that needle?"

I hope you enjoyed this silly segment of Lucas and balloons. :P This actually started out as the beginning to "My Name Is Jo," which obviously evolved a lot from when I started writing it.